Staged Murder
by RainyDumplings
Summary: A famous actress is murdered onstage in the middle of a performance. A small cast of actors are believed to be suspects, but there is more than meets the eye... AU. Fluff! A pinch of romance. Multi-chaptered. No spoilers here!
1. Prologue

**Staged Murder **

_"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard-" _

Athena nudged Apollo's arm gently, grabbing attention. Apollo turned his ear to his dear friend, eyes still trained upon the performance in front of them. "You promised it wouldn't be some stupid Romeo & Juliet tragedy."

Apollo turned his attention fully to Athena. "It isn't. Well, there's death in this but it's not '_Oh Romeo!_' or anything of the sort." The girl with hair as orange as autumn leaves wore a light blue dress and had her hair down for the theatre performance. She didn't look like a crazy eighteen year-old girl who'd be dashing all over the place and thinking everyone was the murderer.

Tonight, she was a _lady_. A daring and ravishing one at that.

_"It seems to me most strange men should fear;" _

Apollo returned his eyes to the performance, watching the actors take the roles of their characters beautifully. In court, he'd actors who couldn't act, and by that, I mean they couldn't keep their "masks" on for long and tried too hard to stay in character. The actors upon the lighted stage were true actors. You couldn't tell that they were acting because they took on the faces of their character's so well.

_"Seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come." _

Here it is, the infamous death of Gonreil by the knights of King Lear. Apollo leaned forward into his seat a little, savoring every line and movement. Athena, on the other hand looked worried, almost distrustingly worried. Her hands were clasped against each other firmly.

One actor pulled a gun out and held it to the other actor's, Gonreil's temple.

"And you said this wasn't a Romeo & Juliet scenario." Athena growled.

Apollo sighed and decided not to bother with the glaring girl sitting next to him until after.

The knight cocked the small gun and pulled the trigger when a loud, menacing gunshot rang out and the lights all at once went out.

"H-hey! Wot's happenin'!?" asked an audience member in the darkness. Apollo mentally agreed with the question. He'd seen this play several times, but never got tired of it, but there was never a blackout scene.

He then felt someone slide their warm palms into his; _Athena. _

"Apollo..." she heard her whisper.

The lights came back on with a couple of flickers when a loud piercing scream came from the stage. The other actor that was standing behind Gonreil covered her face in horror seeing the dead actor of Gonreil lie motionless on stage with a pool of blood oozing beneath her. The knight stared at his hand which held the murder weapon confoundedly. The gun.

"That's a real gun!" a large man with a red face in the front row shouted, standing up from his seat and running up the aisle for the exit. Soon after, the whole auditorium was booking it for the nearest exit! The actors all ran backstage in fear, leaving the knight who held the gun paralyzed with fear.

"Dammit!" Apollo hopped out of his chair and instead of running for the exit like everyone else, he ran towards the stage, loosening his red tie on his tux a little. "Drop the gun!" his infamous Chords of Steel shouted, scaring the actor into dropping the gun and running.

"Apollo!" he heard Athena shout. The ceiling above was making a loud cracking noise. "Apollo, run!" he heard her shout once again but the ceiling came down too fast, caving in the entire auditorium and trapping him.


	2. Threats

**Staged Murder (Ch. 1 - Threats)  
**

"It'll be awhile before Polly's out of the hospital..." Trucy Wright announced sadly, swinging her short legs around in the blue couch. Athena sat on the other side of the couch, more worried than anyone else in Wright's Anything Agency combined. She looked about ready to cry at any given moment.

Phoenix Wright looked over his daughter with kind, reassuring eyes. "Apollo's not that weak. He'll pull through within the right time. At the meantime," he directed his gaze to Athena who was back in her usual outlandishly yellow lawyer clothes. "Would you mind elaborating on what happened?"

Athena shook her head, adamant to even speaking.

Maya Fey sat on the corner of Phoenix's desk with a bag of chips her mood was the complete opposite of Athena's. "Well, if you won't talk then-then?" Clearly, she had no threats or tricks up her sleeves this time.

"If you don't talk, I'll hex you." Trucy threatened. "Or...I'll take Widget in your sleep and dismantle him."

Athena looked ready to kill someone. "If you touch Widget, I'll destroy your little trick house or whatever."

"I'll cut your hair."

"I'll destroy your hat."

"I'll tear off your clothes."

"Enough!" Phoenix ordered, slamming his fists on his desk. The threats the two girls fired at each other were getting too crazed and ridiculous, I mean, _tearing off clothes?_ Maya giggled at how animated they became in a matter of seconds...or threats?

Phoenix folded his arms and looked at his daughter with a I-need-you-to-behave look then to Athena. "Now, will you tell us what happened at Saint-Laurent Theatre? As much as you can recall. From the beginning of when you arrived to when the police grabbed you and forced you out of the building when it collapsed."

Her deep blue eyes became glassy. Athena was strong, but was terribly sensitive to topics that were related to Apollo. "W-well," she began nervously. "Last week Apollo invited me out to see King Lear, which was the play we saw last night and I agreed. I never cared much for the arts, but that might've been because I never really got the chance to see one. The thing is, I thought they were all boring. But, Apollo changed that."

Maya looked to Trucy with a "awww" expression. Phoenix nodded his head and motioned for her to continue.

"I'd been looking forward to it all week and finally last night, it happened. I thought Apollo was always some crazed lawyer with constant bad luck, but he's different outside of work. He's much more gentlemanly!" her face pinkened. The room erupted with another "awww!" and a couple of cute giggles.

"The performance itself was wonderful, but when the scene of Gonreil's death came, the knight had a gun. According to the actual script, the knight is supposed to 'fake' kill Gonreil. But in last night's performance, clearly, the actor was killed for real and a blackout happened when the murder took place. Apollo was worried about the dead actor and the knight was frightened out of his wits that he ran towards the stage, but the ceiling collapsed on him shortly after."

"It's a miracle no one was hurt!" Trucy added. "With the exception of the dead actor and Apollo..."

Maya Fey shook her head, thinking that Trucy's comment wasn't the best one for the moment. There's a time and place for everything, but not now. Athena went back to being depressed about Apollo and slid all the way back into the plush blue couch.

"We can't do any investigating until Apollo's out of the hospital anyways." said Phoenix.

"Why not!?" Trucy blasted, getting up from the couch and marching over to her father's desk angrily. "Someone hurt Apollo and it's our job to catch the killer!"

"We can't." Maya spoke for Phoenix. "We don't even have a list of possible suspects because all the actors have mysteriously disappeared; probably fled in terror after what happened, and Phoenix and I are already busy with another case."

Trucy groaned and stretched her cheeks as to relieve her stress. "Let's focus on our friend's recovery before tackling the case. Athena, please go visit him. I'm sure he'd like that." Phoenix said with a grin, knowing that Athena liked him.

She got up from her chair slowly and without a word, made for the exit.

"Follow her, dear." the older man finished, motioning for his daughter to go. The young magician nodded her head and with a mischievous grin, she took off after Athena quietly.

"Think they'll be ok together?" Maya asked, still eating her bag of chips without a care in the world.

"I don't think they'll kill each other...maybe?"

* * *

Athena walked slowly, but angrily down the streets of Manhattan, forcing her way through any passerby.

_"Good god, does no one have any respect for people these days? Even if you're being a little miss angry bath-tub duckie."_ Trucy thought as she hid behind lampposts, benches, buildings when she followed the ginger. She was the famed daughter of Zak Gramayre. Hiding and stalking were no biggie for her.

"Madame! I think we should-" her hat transformed into a puppet and started shouting loudly; thankfully, Trucy quickly silenced Mr. Hat.

"Mmm?" Athena turned around and looked down the street behind her, thinking that her acute hearing heard Mr. Hat. "Trucy? Pipsqueak?"

"Aye! I'm not a pipsqueak!"

"Gotcha."

Trucy covered her mouth, regretting that she had answered Athena.

"Why are you following me?" she asked with one hand on her hip.

"Aye, daddy told me that I should tag along with you? To make sure you don't kill anyone out of anger, I mean." she hurried over to her taller companion and folded her fingers.

"Me? Kill someone? What do you take me for?"

Trucy had to remind herself that Athena was truly in pain from Apollo being in the hospital and that she felt guilty for what happened at Saint-Laurent Theatre. It was best not to make a joke now or resort to name-calling. "Sometimes you can be a little scary when you're mad..." she said timidly and looked down to her blue boots.

Athena Cykes turned and just kept walking, letting the young magician follow. She didn't want to start something - not now. Not when she was this upset.


	3. Hospital Visit

**Staged Murder (Ch. 2 - Hospital Visit) **

"Ngggh..." Apollo stretched his legs out as far as he could before pain came shooting through his body. Clearly, he wasn't going to be walking around anytime soon in this state, and he certainly won't be defending anyone.

"Polly! You're awake!" chirped Trucy, leaning over and breathing right on his face. Athena pulled her cape and forced her back. "Seriously, you're right on top of his face. Back off a little."

Trucy looked at the older woman with dead eyes. "You're the one who's always on top of his face, you hogger."

"What!?" Athena's face exploded with red. "Just-get out!" she shrieked.

Trucy quickly bounced out of the room with her tongue sticking out of her mouth and a crazed giggle.

Apollo blinked, still unsure of what he saw. Was Athena mad at him or Trucy or...?

Athena sighed and rubbed both sides of her temple with her index fingers. "She can be a little brat sometimes..." she muttered under breath, still watching the door jsut to make sure she doesn't come barreling back in.

"Um...are you alright?" Apollo inquired, scooching up in his bed a little. "Did I do something to make you mad?"

Athena turned, "Yes! I mean no! Well, yes and no? Yes! No! Ugh!" she slapped herself. "Trucy was just on my nerves all morning today and I guess I just yelled at her."

Apollo nodded his head quietly in an understanding way and gazed out the hospital room window. "I'm sorry to suddenly change topics on you, but I spoke with Klavier Gavin today about the Saint-Laurent Theatre incident and he filled me in a bit on the investigations. We have a list of suspects so far. Allow me to share them: first, we have the actor who played the knight that is rumoured to have been the one who killed Gonreil. Nathaniel Caxton. Next, the other actor who was on stage at the time of the murder: Lucy Cartwright. Finally, the last actor who was in the vicinity during the time of the murder: Ledo Rayleighs."

"What of the actual dead person?" Athena asked.

"Gonreil? Oh! Her name was Mary Mollins or as most people call her: Ms. Mollins."

"One more thing, you said that Ledo Rayleighs was within the 'vicinity' during the time of the murder. What do you mean?"

Apollo coughed a little before continuing. "There was a door where he was supposed to come out of to find Gonreil dead in the play. He was behind that door which put him on stage, though unseen when the murder of Ms. Mollins took place. Anyways, I called Nathaniel Caxton over to meet us and he should be here any minute now."

Athena stood up from her chair. "Woah, what!? You're calling the killer over to this hospital room!" she pulled her hair out! "He's the one with the gun that murdered Ms. Mollins!"

Apollo shook his head and reassured for Athena to sit back down. "He's _rumoured_ to have killed Ms. Mollins, but he's who we're defending in court."

"How hard did you hit your head?"

A soft knock came on the room door. Apollo announced for the knocker to come in and fixed himself a little in the bed so that he was in a comfortable enough position for a long talk.

"U-uhm...I'm Nathaniel Caxton...but you can just call me Nate..." he said shyly, hugging the white hospital room walls.

"You can come closer." said Apollo.

"Nnghh...no-no-no, I insist upon staying here...the walls are lovely..."

Athena arched her brow curiously at the very tall, but shy man. Was this really the brave knight she saw on the stage or had the incident frightened him into recreating a scaredy-cat personality?

"So you played the knight?" Apollo inquired.

"Eeek!" Nate cowered in fear. "I didn't kill her! I didn't kill Mary!"

"Calm down! I didn't say you did!" he let his Chords of Steel ability slip. It felt as if the room walls shook when he shouted.

"Ahh! Don't hurt me!" Nate continued, curling into a fetal position on the floor.

"Oi, you! Get a grip and sit!" Athena barked. "Wimp!" Widget laughed roboticly.

* * *

After sometime of trying to get Nathaniel Caxton to calm down and to sit in a chair without running away, the duo of lawyers got around to asking the questions. Surprisingly, Nate looked a lot different up close; almost charming with his bright emerald green eyes and glasses. His dark green hair was a fit of wild curls on his head.

"So," Apollo started. "Can you tell us what happened?"

Nate nodded his head and gripped the fabric of his dark pants, remembering what happened.

**-TESTIMONY- **

"I was on stage at the time of the murder as the knight who was supposed to kill Gonreil, but I wasn't supposed to actually kill her! I had a prop gun! I had no reason to kill Ms. Mollins. She's old and the most experienced of all the actors, but she shared her knowledge with us and aided us. She was always so kind and open to everyone! However, the last person to hold the 'prop' gun was Ledo Rayleighs. Mr. Rayleighs was the only one who wasn't terribly fond of Ms. Mollins. I think he's one who did it!"

**-END TESTIMONY- **

Apollo sighed and leaned into his pillow slowly, repeating Nathaniel Caxton's testimony in his head. Athena turned to him with a worried expression. _She was always worried, actually. _

"You said you had a prop gun," said Apollo. "But you clearly had a real gun. There's a contradiction in your testimony..." he felt his eyelids droop a little.. The doctors gave him some sleeping medicine earlier and he could feel it begin to take effect.

"I was supposed to have a prop gun, but yeah! I somehow had the real deal!" cried Nate, starting to get scared once again. "I'm telling you, it was Mr. Rayleighs who switched the weapons!"

Apollo passed out at some point during the last statement made by Nate.

"Eh? He's out cold! Mon Dieu!" Nate looked over at Apollo then to Athena. "I take you're the girlfriend? Well, I'm sure he's in capable hands with you around! I'll take my leave then. Adieu." and with that, Nathaniel Caxton disappeared out the door with new found confidence. Athena looked over at Apollo and decided to give him a quick small kiss on the forehead...

_"Get better soon..."_


	4. Mischief and Magic

**Staged Murder (Ch. 3 - Mischief and Magic) **

"Slowly...slower! Slow..." Trucy whispered with a smile, holding a rope a bucket full of water at the other end of the rope on the ceiling. Below, Athena slept unbeknownst to the terrible disaster that lay hanging above her. Maya also held onto the rope behind Trucy. Apparently she'd been convinced into helping the mischievous magician with pranking Athena Cykes for free ice cream.

"Trucy!" Phoenix roared.

"Eeep!" said the blue magician, letting the rope slip. Maya still held on, but it jerked her forward and pulled her up against the ceiling as the bucket went down with a crash on Athena's cranium.

"Trucy Wright! There ar-" Phoenix's mouth dropped as he opened the door and came upon Maya hanging limply on the ceiling with a rope tied around her waist and a sopping wet, angry Athena who looked ready to kill.

"Hi daddy." Trucy beamed, trying to wiggle her way out of a dangerous situation.

"Bzzzzt! T-Trucy Wright-Gramayre! GUIL...TY!" Widget's voice made a couple of static noises as it tried to speak before powering down completely. Dead.

Athena's eyebrow twitched and in a flash, she leaped over the couch and grabbed Trucy by the collar of her dress and flipped her, sending her flying into the window curtains!

"Ooh, fantastic. That's gonna hurt fo' sure!" Maya laughed, forgetting for a moment that she was also in a bad situation.

Phoenix sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, I'm only one man, and one man can't handle three girls all about to kill each other. Can we all calm down? At least until Apollo recovers and returns..."

"Bratty child number one just killed Widget and dumped a bucket of water on me! Then bratty child number two is on the ceiling!" Athena blasted, having had enough of Wright's Anything Agency. She pushed Phoenix out of the way and stormed out of the building.

"Rough morning, eh? I reckon she's gone off to the hospital." Maya declared, still not registering that she's stuck to the ceiling.

Phoenix groaned, looking at his daughter and assistant.

* * *

Athena kicked a lonely can on the sidewalk into the street. "Stupid! Why do they have to be-" Athena cracked her knuckles and kicked a house fence in anger. "I could be in some 'official' lawyer agency and not some crazy carnival! Oh, and you killed Widget too!"

"Bzzzt! Madame, I am not dead! Just temporarily shut down for maintenance! Battery life: 5%." Widget made a happy emoticon to try to cheer Athena up. Widget was a little robot that hung around Athena's neck, but he was always doing his best to cheer her up and to sympathize with her. True, Widget was nothing more than an invention, but there were times where it seemed like it had a soul and mind of it's own.

"Madame! I believe we should go to the hospital! Hospital location: 133 feet N. and-"

"Ok, be quiet you! I know where it is!"

"Touchy today." Widget laughed.

"I'll dismantle you!"

"Going to sleep." and Widget powered down. Just like that. Athena gave a sigh of relief, but unknowingly...bystanders were staring at her strangely. "Who is she talking to?" one asked.

Athena almost blew a gasket at that moment because now she looked stupid because she was talking to the "air."

* * *

"Are you alright? Apollo asked quietly. Athena looked stressed and wouldn't stop pacing about the room.

"Now all of Manhattan thinks I'm a lunatic because I looked was talking to the air when I was really talking to Widget, but even I told them I was actually talking to my robotic companion who's actually my necklace that I created then-"

"Athena..." Apollo said ardently. "Calm down, and take a deep breathe."

Athena did the exact opposite and held her breathe.

"Breathe!" shouted Chords of Steel!

"Breathing!"

The dark-haired man sighed and leaned back. "How was your morning?"

Athena laughed wickedly. "Let's not go there...very bad idea. Danger zone."

Apollo blinked and raised his eyebrows at her. "Did you do something bad?"

"Noooooo-maybe. Yes? No!" Athena always gets flustered whenever Apollo decided to intrude upon her day by asking questions. "No! Definitely no!"

"Ok then. I have news to share with you anyways. I can get out of the hospital tonight as long as I'm careful about any kind of movement. I can move around but I can't do all the crazy bad guy chasing, running, jumping, or other agile things you make me do."

"Of course! Getting out of here is way more important and catching the culprit that's responsible for the collapse of Saint-Laurent Theatre!" she clenched her fists with a firm resolve.


	5. Ledo Rayleighs

**Staged Murder (Ch. 4 - Ledo Rayleighs) **

Phoenix hung over his desk with a dead expression in his eyes.

"Justice! You're back!" Maya said cheerfully with a bag of chips. (As usual.)

"Polly!" Trucy sang, appearing from a toy box. "Daddy's been waiting forever for you to recover!"

Maya pulled on the back of Phoenix's million-dollar suit with no response from him. "As you can see, he's dead."

"What!?" screeched Apollo and Athena in unison as they raced over to Phoenix's side and pushed him up from the desk and against his chair.

"No more..." he moaned.

"What did you do to him?" Athena shouted, glaring powerfully at Trucy and labeling her the culprit of Phoenix's demise.

"I didn't do it!" she said quickly and booked it for the door followed by Maya just casually strolling out.

Apollo shook Mr. Wright's body once more in hopes that it'd magically be a charm to bring him back to reality.

"Ugh. Just leave him," said Athena. "Let's just get started on the case of Saint-Laurent Theatre." Apollo agreed and suggested that they go to the theatre itself first to collect some evidence and data.

* * *

"Oh wow...the place has been reduced to nothing but rubble." Athena commented. She always stayed within some few feet of Apollo out of fear that something would happen to him again. Apollo shifted some of the fallen mosaic ceiling stones out of the aisle to clear a path towards the stage. Athena felt her heart thump loudly against her chest each time he did something.

"Here," said Apollo as he knelt down slowly on the stage to where there was a large pool of dried-up blood. "This is where Mary Mollins was killed." not too far from where he knelt over was the murder weapon itself which Athena had carefully picked up. She opened the gun compartment to find that there were no bullets in it.

"It must've been loaded with a single bullet." she said sternly.

"Right, and somewhere around here is the bullet."

"Huh!? There's other weapons in here!?"

"No. If Nathaniel Caxton fired it, the bullet must've completely gone through Ms. Mollins body and landed against a surface. We need to find that surface s we can pinpoint exactly where it was fired from."

"But, Nate said he fired the real gun unknowingly." the ginger felt agitated just being in the theatre.

"True, very true. But what if someone behind him fired the gun at the _exact_ moment Nate was supposed to fire it, making him believe that he was the one who killed Ms. Mollins? That's why we have to find the missing bullet." Apollo slowly rose from his knee and walked to the other of the stage to examine the walls for any bullet holes.

Athena exhaled sadly, almost wishing that they didn't take on this case and that it was left to Maya Fey and Phoenix Wright's care.

"There's no bullet hole. That's odd..." said Apollo, reexamining the area. "There really is no bullet hole."

"Then how was Mary Mollins killed?" Athena was somehow alarmed by the sudden new mystery of where had the bullet hole disappeared to.

"Let's keep going and looking around." the male lawyer followed the walls leading backstage followered by Athena Cykes. As soon as they were making final turn around the last corner...an undiscovered body was discovered!

Athena shrieked and pushed herself against the wall in horror. "That's not Mary Mollins! That Ledo Rayleighs!"

The police and ambulance arrived fairly quickly to examine Mr. Rayleigh's body which was announced _dead_, which left a gaping hole in the duo's investigations. Nathaniel Caxton had said that Ledo Rayleighs was the only one who'd possibly have a grudge against Ms. Mollins, but now that he was dead, that makes defending Nathaniel much harder.

"Apollo..." Athena pulled the material of clothing lightly. "Did you see that Mr. Rayleighs also had a gun?"

"Did he?" How could've Apollo overlooked this? "Make haste, Athena! Back to the scene! Find the gun that Mr. Rayleighs was holding and see if it was real or a prop!" Both forced their way through with the help of Bobby Fulbright, head of crime scene investigations.

When they returned to the backstage location of where they'd found the body, they'd also found the gun. _It was real. _

"Huh? Three guns!?" the ginger exclaimed, dumbfounded by this new discovery. "And still no prop gun! Was the prop gun a real gun without bullets perhaps?"

"That's very possible. Let's ask Nate about it. I'll give him a call and tell him to come over to the theatre.

* * *

"Oh, tres bon! Yes, yes, I remember! Our prop gun was indeed a real gun, but not loaded with bullets and even if it were, it's so old and rusted that you still wouldn't be able to fire it!" Nathaniel somehow did a 180 with his personality as he's no longer a scaredy-cat.

Athena sensed some contradiction somewhere in Nate's words. Well, not a contradiction, but trying to hide something, but decided not to pursue it as it was too risky without Widget here to help confirm her findings.

"Thank you; you may leave." Apollo was adamant about letting him go, but there were still too many holes and not enough answers. _Who fired the gun, which one was the gun used to kill Ms. Mollins, is Nate loyal or a liar, where is the missing bullet? _

* * *

They'd stopped their investigations for today and decided to return to the Wright's Anything Agency to go over some things. Outside of Saint-Laurent Theatre it was pouring rain. Funny because it was sunshine and rainbows only a few hours earlier and now it looked like someone had angered Zeus.

"Careful..." Apollo said kindly to Athena, making her aware of the giant, deep puddle in front oh her. She paused and stepped over it, feeling victorious that the puddle hadn't trapped her boots in it's watery grasp. "You ok?" he then inquired, deciding to stop for moment in the busy streets. People with umbrellas passed by, racing to get home and taxis honking on the streets.

"Just cold..." Athena said achingly, gripping her umbrella.

Apollo raised his umbrella and beckoned silently for Athena to come join him under his large and lonely umbrella.

She felt her heart burn with a need to be close to Apollo, but her mind said no. Yes or no?

"No?" Apollo whispered sadly, lowering his umbrella over his face. He felt a warm body next to him suddenly and re-raised his umbrella. Athena had closed her umbrella and had come joined him.

"Ok now?" she asked, turning away to hide her face.

"Ok now." he said with great joy and walked alongside her under the shared umbrella in the pouring rain. _Only if there were such thing as a "pause" button in life..._


	6. Dead Bodies

**Staged Murder (Ch. 5 - Dead Bodies) **

"I don't want to look at dead bodies!" Athena protested, covering her ears and pacing back and forth in Wright's office.

"Nick, convince her!" Maya Fey laughed, savouring this little torture that Apollo put upon her.

"Athena..." Phoenix started but instead of sympathizing or being kind, he decided to go along with the torture too. "Apollo recently texted me and it said this," he took out his phone and improvised a fake text and read it aloud to her. "Dear Athena, if you don't come with me, then I'll never do a case with you ever again!"

"ARGHHHH!" Athena shook her head and grabbed Phoenix and shook him vigorously! "I'll go! I'll go! Tell Apollo I'll go!"

"You dirty devil." Maya teased.

"Hey, you're dirtier than I am!" Phoenix shot back.

Somehow, Athena reluctantly agreed to go examine the body of Mary Mollins with Apollo. She hated bodies that was for sure, but if she had to do it with Apollo, then it didn't matter as much.

When they arrived at the medical examiners office, they were instantly taken to the operating table where the body of Mary Mollins was.

"Actually, can I go?" Athena quickly changed her mind and started walking for the exit, regretting that she'd ever set foot in this medical graveyard.

"No!" Apollo shouted after her. There were beads of sweat running down his forehead from nervousness. "Don't leave me here by myself!"

"See! You also don't want to be here!" the ginger pointed out. "You're sweating bullets!"

"W-what!? What sweat? What are you talking about? You're the one who's frightened out of their wits!"

"Pause..." the examiner muttered darkly. "Are you going to look...or are you going to leave?" he breathed.

"Stay!" the both cried in unison, holding each others arms. The examiner removed the white sheet slowly to reveal a beautiful auburn coloured-hair woman somewhere around her late fifties; early sixties.

"Oh...she's beautiful..." Athena said in amazement. "I mean, the dead person isn't beautiful-well yes, she is beautiful but not...dead?"

The examiner looked at Athena questionably. Clearly he wasn't too terribly fond of the lawyers, but he did fill us in on what they did with the body. "After the police transported the body here, we rushed to perform an autopsy on Ms. Mollins and in her acting clothes we found this," he tenderly held a small note in his hand and gave it to Apollo. On the letter it read: _"You'll pay for betraying me." _

"Is that a death threat?" Athena asked.

"Seems like it. And look!" Apollo pointed to the top left corner of the note where it was a perfect circle. "That's our missing bullet hole! Sir," he walked over to the examiner and presented the slip of paper. "Could you show us where exactly Ms. Mollins was shot and if you found a bullet inside her at all?"

The burly examiner lifted his chin and walked over to the body and pulled the sheet further down.

"W-wait!" Apollo boomed. "Don't pull it down that way!"

The examiner sighed and moved the sheet back up, then proceeded to the other end of the sheet and starting lifting it up.

"Ah...stop!" Athena ordered. "Don't pull it up that way!"

The examiner just dropped the sheet. "Make up your minds! Do you want to see the breast or-"

"Can we use nicer words?" Apollo asked timidly.

He growled. "Look. The bullet is around the stomach area. Now, you gotta a choice, ok? I can either pull the sheet downwards to expose the 'boob' region or I can pull it upwards to expose the 'area.'" Poor guy wasn't haven't funny and probably felt like he was babysitting a couple of kids.

"Down!" Apollo and Athena finally agreed. The medical examiner gave them a look and pulled the sheet downwards, exposing the breasts and stomach. "Here." he said, pointing to the cleaned wound on the ribcage just directly above the stomach. "Broken rib and spine and a damaged lung."

Apollo fit the letter around the bullet wound to measure for size. "Alright! I have all my evidence I need! Thank you, sir!"

* * *

"We have everything we need?" Athena wasn't too sure of Apollo, but had placed her faith in him regardless.

"We're going to court instantly. It's time to shed some light on a few things and to get our answers from our live witnesses!"

"So we're still in defense of Nathaniel Caxton despite how Ledo Rayleighs is dead?"

"Yes!"


End file.
